Copyright (New Technologies and Performers’ Rights) Amendment Bill

The Copyright (New Technologies and Performers’ Rights) Amendment Bill was introduced into Parliament to amend the Copyright Act 1994 to update the terminology used in the legislation and also to cover newer technologies not currently addressed in the 1994 Act.

In particular, the Bill covers issues such as format shifting, time shifting and technological protection measures. The Bill also repeals the previous terminology “television broadcast” and “cable programme” and replaces these with a broad category of “communication work” which is defined to mean “to transmit or make available by means of a communication technology, including by means of a telecommunications system or electronic retrieval system”.

The Bill passed its first reading on 12 December 2006 and has been forwarded to a Select Committee for consideration of public submissions. Once the Select Committee issues its report on the Bill it will be referred back to Parliament for consideration of the report and the Bill’s second reading.

 March 2007.